Maddy’s Journal 8 (Farming Simulator 22 fan fiction)

I got a little sidetracked in my last entry. Well, a lot sidetracked. But that’s the benefit of a journal and not a—gasp!—diary. When I journal I can take every rabbit trail I want and not feel like I broke some unwritten rules. I always found diaries as too specific and full of excessive introspection. Me, I just prefer to write whatever comes to mind. Sometimes those ramblings jar loose rusty memories, which is where this entry is going to take me. Back to December 11, 1990. The day I became terrified of fog. It was a Tuesday. 

The decision to begin Christmas break early my senior year was not my idea. I wanted extra days to spend with friends. And hit up your typical high school party. A little drinking, petting, strip poker. You know, standard young person exploration mixed with stupidity stuff. I’ll admit to being on the wild side. I was safe, or at least I believed I was safe at that age. Okay, okay. I had been on the pill for five years already, so I was a lot more careless than I should’ve been. At least looking through the twenty-twenty hindsight eyeglasses, I was safe. Before you all think I was the local bicycle, I had—yes had—as in not anymore, a physical condition that birth control managed. Of course, how would I know? Mom is the one who insisted I be on birth control. 

TMI, I know. But you’re the one reading this so don’t throw stones in my direction. 

My dad’s family all lived in Chattanooga. And I do mean all his family. They had migrated up and down the east coast from Florida to Maine and back south again. They were like migrating animals always chasing the rainy season for greener pastures. But when they arrived in Chattanooga, it was like they arrived at the Mara River, and not one of them was willing to take that first leap into the River of Death. 

And that’s where we were headed on that Tuesday morning. We had to leave early even though we had driven all the way to Asheville, North Carolina the day before. Still almost four hours to go. So, we were out the door by six that morning, and planned no stops until arriving at my uncle’s house. 

At Knoxville we took Interstate 75 south after leaving Interstate 40 from Asheville. I don’t recall what the traffic was like. Or the weather. Or anything, really. My mind concerned itself with other things far more important to an eighteen year old. Besides I wasn’t driving. And Knoxville wasn’t new. We had been there before. An hour later all hell had broken loose. And the images I saw that morning still haunt my sleep. 

If it wasn’t for my dad’s heroics, I’m not sure I would’ve ever come to grips (as flimsy as they still are) with the carnage. But what my dad did that day for so many people has always provided me with a lifeline. And the scars on his arms are a not-so-subtle daily reminder of the events that started with the fog. 

I’ll need a break for now. The memories are too overwhelming for me to focus on writing. And the tears in my eyes are making the screen blurry. 

Review: Dear Esther: Landmark Edition

I'm not even sure where to start with Dear Esther: Landmark Edition. Normally I would give a little background information followed by a breakdown of the game as I responded to it. The trouble with Dear Esther is it isn't much of a game in terms of gameplay. Quite honestly there isn't any gameplay—walk, zoom, and look is it. But there is one thing Dear Esther does well and I'll get to that in a moment. 

Dear Esther was developed by The Chinese Room and published in 2008 as a free to play mod. Then republished in 2012 for PC and Mac and 2013 for Linux by The Chinese Room. And published by Curved Digital for PS4 and Xbox 1in 2016. It's a first-person, story-driven game. Sort of. At least in terms of story-driven. 

Throughout the game a narrator appears and maps out the history of a killed spouse to the audience via letters written by the husband of the deceased. The letters loosely imply the character’s wife was killed in an auto accident, but it's soon muddled by some back story of other island inhabitants, and the drunk driver. 

The story of the prior inhabitants and the death of the character’s wife soon becomes white noise, though.  And I found it to have been disruptive more than inclusive, and the reason why is because of what the game does exceptionally. 

Dear Esther: Landmark Edition is a visual orgasm. The images are so real and lifelike, and the environment so believable, I quickly found myself shivering with the gusts of wind, hunching my shoulders over against the sea spray, and the chill of the caves that are explored within the game. At one point you explore a wrecked and decayed ship. As you walk through you feel immersed in the ribs of the broken ship and the emptiness of its cavity. 

Although the game had a completely immersive environment, I could easily see people putting the game down and never returning to it, and that's in spite of its incredibly short story (I finished the game in an hour and twenty minutes, which could've easily been an hour had I not stopped for screenshots). 

I would be hard pressed to say the game has replay qualities. One time through is more than enough. So be sure to take all the screenshots the first time. 

Dying Light Initial Thoughts

Welcome to LittleWatt Gameplay. Several weeks ago I was asked what game I had played that with the best story. I believe my response was something to similar to “I don’t know that I have ever played a game with a story or storyline. I mean where is the story in Madden Football or Gran Turismo? There isn’t one. And I suppose games like Metal Gear Solid and Tomb Raider 1, 2, 3, had some story to it but not much. And I’m certain Resistance: Fall of Man had a story but I wasn’t interested in doing anything in that game other than shoot the chimera and get to the end.

I recently finished DOOM (the 2016 release) and found it had a fairly decent story in it even if it was easily glossed over or dismissed altogether. The story had to be read, which easily slowed the game down from its balls-to-the-wall gameplay. Who wants to slow down to read anyway? It would be easy for me to argue DOOM had the best story in any game I’ve ever played.

But that isn’t true anymore. Although, I’ve put several hours into Dying Light, I’m still only fifteen percent finished with the game. Now I’m not certain if all the side missions are included in the game completion percentage, and if they aren’t, then the game will move along quickly as I’ve only done a few main story missions. Compare that to seven or eight side missions or quests. Hell, I’ve even done a scene for a movie with some film director whose camera I tracked down during a side mission. And I have to say splattering forty zombies with a double barrel shotgun in under two minutes (I think) was great fun (I had forty-four seconds remaining).

Even though all that zombie killing is great fun, and gets even better once the player levels up and the weapons can be modified into serious zombie destroying tools, the story behind the game is equally good. There are some real-life politics and stereotyping in the game. Some high drama and backstabbing. And the commentary of the main character is wonderfully clever and witty. And the thing is, all the quests or side-missions are key into unravelling the entire story.

Initially, I found the controls to be complicated and not well thought out. But I was also coming off hours and hours of DOOM where all the controls had become second nature, and they were also fairly standard controls. But now that I’ve put more hours into Dying Light the controls are easily to handle and don’t feel nearly as cumbersome. (And with the acquisition with the grappling hook everything thing has become just a bit easier—you’ll need to be survivor level twelve to receive the grappling hook.)

During the night missions, stealth plays a major factor in succeeding. Again with the grappling hook night missions will become far easier. During my first night mission, I was killed in short order but have successfully survived the night four times without even being noticed. Still, the stress level goes up quite a bit during the night, armed with the massively destructive double-barrel shotgun or not. (All those hours spent looting, accomplishing side missions, stealing airdrops from thieves, unlocking all the safe houses,and killing zombies will level you up quick enough to get specialty weapons. But you can craft one of the best weapons in the game right away—the Molotov cocktails. These bottles of flaming liquid will dispatch nearly all enemies, and multiple enemies, with little to no effort. One Molotov is good for a least six dead zombies all at once so long as they are grouped together. Nothing works as efficiently.

Dying Light is a must play game for anyone interested in first-person, zombie, horror, or survival games. And it has a wonderful story to boot.